Jaehyun: "You always talk like that?"
She typed:
"Evidently."
A pause.
Buzz.
Jaehyun: "Must be exhausting."
She didn't think before replying.
"Your assumption is inaccurate."
Another pause. Longer this time. Two minutes. Three.
Then—
Buzz.
Jaehyun: "You're weird."
Her eyes narrowed. Not insulted. Just calculating.
She wrote:
"Your vocabulary is limited if that is the best descriptor you can conjure."
She set the phone down again, folding her arms.
This was almost relaxing—verbal sparring with someone who couldn't keep up.
Her phone vibrated once more.
But this one wasn't like the others.
It was longer.
Not a message.
A call.
Jaehyun was calling her.
Yerin stared at the screen lighting up her dim room, his name glowing against the black background. Her heart didn't race. Her breath didn't change. Her fingers didn't tremble.
She simply... considered.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
She reached for the phone—
Stopped halfway.
Let it ring.
Let him wait.
Only when it was seconds from going to voicemail did she finally swipe to accept, lifting it to her ear with the same calm neutrality she used for everything else.
"...What."
She didn't ask. She didn't soften it. She didn't greet him.
There was a beat of silence on his end—surprised silence.
Then a low exhale, not laughter exactly, but something close.
"Figures you'd answer like that," he muttered.
She said nothing.
He didn't hang up.
Neither did she.
Finally, he spoke again, voice rough, annoyed, but also... something else.
"I wanted to hear how you talk without all the big words."
She didn't hesitate.
"Disappointing request."
He snorted. "There it is again."
Silence pressed between them, but Yerin didn't fill it. She didn't offer anything. She let him deal with it.
Then, after almost a full minute, Jaehyun asked quietly:
"...Are you always like this when you're alone?"
Her eyes dropped to her bedsheets.
"No," she said simply.
It wasn't the answer he expected."
There was a soft rustle from his side—footsteps maybe, gravel shifting. He was outside somewhere. Moving.
"Then what are you like?" he asked.
YOU ARE READING
No Strings Attached
Mystery / Thriller© all credits go to esmeulor BAEK YERIN (played by liu haocun) RYU HYUNJUN (played by hong jonghyun/moon dohyuk) HAN TAEKYUNG (played by hong mingi) Baek Yerin looks perfect. She's rich, brilliant, polite- Korea's favorite daughter. But she isn't re...
CHAPTER 2: D-0
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